Over the holiday weekend Duke University and John Hopkins University competed in the men’s lacrosse national championship. After all the scrutiny Duke’s team faced in the past year, most of the country rooted for the Blue Devils in the final. Last year three Duke Lacrosse players (Collin Finnerty, David Evans, and Reade Seligmann) were charged with the rape of an African American 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University who was stripping for the team at an off-campus party. As a result of the allegations Mike Pressler resigned as Men’s Duke Lacrosse coach and Athletic Director Joe Alleva suspended the Blue Devil’s lacrosse season. The end result of this racial storm on tobacco road was that all charges were dropped leaving District Attorney Mike Nifong looking foolish. Duke on the other hand seemed to be on their way to a sports movie deal. In an effort to silence the critics, Duke was on their way to winning their first Lacrosse National Championship. Disney had the papers all drawn up for the movie deal that would have had Chad Michael Murray play Finnerty. Too bad John Hopkins University had other plans, triumphing in an exciting 11-10 victory over Duke in the final.

Although happy no rape occured that fateful night, the Duke players are far from innocent and do not deserve a country rallying behind them for the title of National Champion. The team’s athletic skill was never in question, because former coach Mike Pressler did an excellent job recruiting and coaching these young men when it came to lacrosse. It was their decency, moral values, and manhood off the field that are in question.

District Attorney Mike Niafong was wrong to rush into charging these boys with such a harsh crime, but was absolutely right when he gave these collegiates the name “hoodlums.� The student athletes of Duke Lacrosse were found innocent of rape, but the culture of the program is completely unacceptable. Over half of the 2006 roster had been in trouble with the university because of on-campus drinking violations and conduct issues while 15 had been arrested for public drunkenness, public urination, and other public disturbance charges. Collin Finnerty was charged in 2006 of assault in Washington, DC. According to the police report, Finnerty and two of his friends attacked a man near Georgetown in the early hours of November 5, “busting his lip and bruising his chin.� The man told the boys to stop “calling him gay and … derogatory names.� Finnerty was ordered to serve 25 hours of community service in Washington, DC. But since he did not rape anyone, he must be a good kid.

The Miami University Football program is constantly under attack because of their culture of unruly troubled African American youths. The Hurricanes deserve to be constantly under attack because of their culture and they are an embarrassment to anyone who was/is a part of college athletics. With that said, having 41 players charged with misdemeanor crimes since 1999 and having players involved in underground “fight clubs� is also unacceptable and Duke Lacrosse should be held to the same standards as Miami Football.

I find it repulsive the way our country embraces these boys. Duke Lacrosse merchandise moved off the shelves in record numbers after the rape allegations. The fact that Fathead.com decided to make a Free Duke Fathead ensures the fact that I will never purchase a fathead to put on my wall, no matter how good a LaRon Landry fathead would look next to my bar. Why does our country celebrate and rally behind unruly youths that scream racial slurs and spit on women? Did we forget that one of the players wrote an email saying he wanted to “skin the stripper alive?� I will not cheer Duke Lacrosse anytime soon because I am still offended and you should be too!